The present invention relates to reduced-noise composite materials, to method for making reduced-noise composite materials, and to disposable personal care and health care devices using the aforementioned reduced-noise composite materials. More particularly, the present invention concerns the use of noise-reducing coating materials in disposable personal care devices to reduce the noise caused by movements of the wearer or user.
Many disposable personal care products incorporate thermoplastic, polymeric films to, for instance, provide liquid containment. For example, disposable absorbent articles such as infant diapers, adult incontinence products, disposable training pants, feminine care pads and panties, and the like are intended to collect and completely retain liquid bodily discharges. Other disposable personal care products intended to retain liquid include such devices as, for example, ostomy pouches. Many other devices employ polymeric films as a barrier layer, including, for example, sterile wraps, surgical garb, or other medical products.
Polymeric films are well known in the art as ideal for such applications, because they are easily processable and low enough in cost so as to make the product affordably disposable. Examples of polymeric films suitable for such applications include polyethylene, polypropylene, and the like, and combinations thereof. For example, disposable absorbent articles such as adult incontinence products, infant diapers, and disposable training pants frequently employ a liquid impervious backsheet made of polyethylene, polypropylene, or the like.
However, a major disadvantage of most polymeric films used in disposable personal care devices is that they produce excessive noise under use conditions; that is, “rattling” or “rustling” sounds caused by the wearer's body movements may reveal to others that a disposable personal care article is being worn. Users of certain disposable absorbent articles generally are embarrassed to have to wear such articles. For example, young children several years of age who are not fully toilet trained or who suffer from enuresis (e.g., bedwetting) often must continue to wear diapers, training pants, or disposable underpants. In another example, incontinent adults use disposable absorbent articles designed for adult incontinence. Both groups of users generally are unenthusiastic about advertising the fact that they require the protection of a disposable absorbent article. As a result, the “rattling” or “rustling” sounds associated with disposable absorbent garments employing polymeric backsheets can be greatly embarrassing to the wearer. Such users desire the product to be as discreet as possible.
Various special materials and technologies have been proposed to reduce the level of noise attributable to specific materials. Such special materials and technologies, however, have not been suitable for or compatible with easily processable, low-cost, and mass-produced disposable personal care devices.
Hence, what is lacking and needed in the art is an improved method of reducing the noise produced by substrates employed in disposable personal care devices, reduced-noise composite materials suitable for use in disposable personal care devices, and reduced-noise disposable personal care devices.